I work for a government I despise for ends I think criminal.

To be turned from one’s course by men’s opinions, by blame, and by misrepresentation shows a man unfit to hold office.

I am no courtesan, nor moderator, nor tribune, nor defender of the people: I am myself the people.

A real leader is somebody who can help us overcome the limitations of our own individual laziness and selfishness and weakness and fear and get us to do better, harder things than we can get ourselves to do on our own.

Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.

Politics is the art of the possible.

What experience and history teach is this—that nations and governments have never learned anything from history or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it.

Every communist must grasp the truth: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.

What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham.

I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli!

Natural rights is simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense—nonsense upon stilts.